Applications of digital technologies for health and safety management in construction

Abstract

The construction industry has been known for many decades as a high-risk industry with low levels of innovation and reluctance to adopt change. Common causes of construction accidents are associated with human error, hazardous work activities, defective equipment and dangerous working environments. However, to provide a better and safe working environment, the industry can exploit the benefits of emerging health and safety technologies. The purpose of this study is to explore the application of various emerging technologies and how they can be used to improve construction health and safety management. The paper reviewed extensive literature from previous studies on emerging technologies and interventions for construction job site safety such as; Virtual Reality (VR), online databases, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), 4D Computer-Aided Design (4D CAD), wearables, robotics, laser scanning, photogrammetry and sensor-based technologies. Furthermore, these technologies were grouped into three categories; people technologies, process technologies and environmental technologies for better analysis. Keywords such as ‘construction health and safety technologies’, ‘digital technologies’ and ‘emerging technologies’ were used to search online databases. This study identified emerging technologies and their application in the construction industry to improve health and safety.